Certain hobbies set off warning bells

"Yeah, I'm a big fan of Hearts of Iron!"

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

"I'm currently playing through [single player game]"
Ah ok, we're probably good
- Is it bad that I played China in SP? I did pretty much take over the world...
  It was an interesting run. Just surviving as China in the beginning is extremely hard, but eventually I controlled all of China plus Japan. Then Russia attacked so I took over almost all of Russia. Then the allies attacked, so I blocked them at India and eventually took over India, then North America and finally started pushing into Europe. With no DLC the endgame can become such a painful grind. The only aggressive wars I was in were the early wars to unify China. Other than that I was always on the defensive.
- Exclusively plays Germany
  
  Is exclusively playing Trotsky better or worse?
  
  A long time ago, when I was a teenager and the first HoI was out, I was only playing Germany. Mostly because it was the only powerful country which felt somewhat manageable without wanting to cry in the convoy screen...
  
  Navy management is actually quite easy, people just overthink it/don't understand that the AI is so flawed it doesn't matter in SP, you just need enough naval superiority in one zone for a single day to Sealion Britain as anyone from Spain to Ethiopia. It's also much easier now that you can claim navies in peace deals.
Stellaris has entered the chat
My genocidal machine empire is gonna wipe the galaxy of all the filthy xeno scum. I don't even want your worlds, I'm gonna crack that bitch open like an egg because we don't need your pathetic "breathable air"
God damn biologicals.
But seriously, Stellaris is fucking awesome.
Legit, I have a teenager in the family heavily into it, and it is worrying. Are there any good articles on how to handle this specific thing gracefully?
- Ask them what their favorite faction in that game is, or if there are any mods they've done recently. Could always just be a big nerd for WW2 cause they're a teenager.
  
  yeah, ww2 history is really interesting lol, it's more a yellow flag than a red flag
  
  Yup. A guy I know was a big WW2 nerd. Also openly gay. Sometimes people just like historic stuff.
- Nope, sorry. Even if he only installed the game, it's too late. We're gonna have to put Jr. down.
  /s
pink guy pfp
🤔🚩

Becoming involved in niche video game communities made me realise how overwhelmingly right wing gamers can be.

It's because video games are a hobby you can play in isolation and being a shithead often has no consequences online.
Similar to how small towns tend to be more xenophobic than big cities due to a lack of exposure to different people and viewpoints

That could be literally anyone these days, though. My mom plays video games.

I know but unfortunately moms can be racist, too.
- Yeah, but at that point it's not a red flag anymore. If everyone plays video games, it doesn't have predictive value anymore until you get into specifics genres or even specific games/franchises.
  
  But....Isn't that the whole point of this post...? Playing video games doesn't mean you're a shitty person but there's enough shitty people into the hobby that you need to get clarification? Why phrase it that way when we're making the same point?
  
  It's silly to blame "gamers" when gamers encompasses potentially the entire planet with every belief.
  Blame conservatives who happen to be gamers. It's the same fucking people, every time.
  
  From my experience playing online games, there's a higher percentage of people publicly using slurs than the general population.
  That's not an admonishment of gamers as a whole, though. I'm not blaming "gamers" for anything
  
  Those are 11 year olds who don't know any better.
  
  We're not making the same point, though. Would you take it as a red flag to learn that someone often eats noodles or drinks cola?
  
  …what kind of cola
  
  That's a different question, same as "what kinds of games".
  
  Nowhere did I say it was a red flag to play video games so you're countering a point I didn't make with reasoning that supports the point I did
  Playing games is not a red flag in itself but some games certainly are. So getting clarification is about checking for red flags...

Stellaris > Extreme Xenophobic

🤔

I just like playing as the tyanids, okay?
Although I guess if you want to get technical, they're quite xenophilic... Gotta consume, maybe they're just into vore.
Damn, what a terrible day to have a brain that thinks such thoughts... (not into vore, but I don't kink-shame unless it's your kink)
Maybe I do have a problem...
- I haven't played Stellaris for years, but I thought one wouldn't go for Xenophobic on those races, but more for "I am the crisis", shared consciousness builds, which I think would be OK.
  
  I'll be honest, I like playing stellaris but i tend to get burnt out after about 200 years or so, and don't fully know all the game mechanics because of this.
  I'll defer to your expertise on this one.
You mean Genocide Simulator?
Don't know anyone who plays Stellaris so I have no idea how true this is lol
- I legit think Stellaris is the best game if you want to roleplay inside 4X strategy. Which is why it's of course worrying if someone keeps making fashy races :)